Category Archive for ‘Reviews’ at elwoodicious

Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

iPhone, A Tale of Love and Hate

Published by james on April 14, 2008 in Hardware and Reviews. 2 Comments

This is one of those posts that has been tickling the back of my head for sometime and I have essentially avoided it up until now–mostly at the prodding of Tyler. Since I am epically lazy–notice how the bulk of my posts in the past year have been photos? Yeah, I’m to lazy to string letters into words and then into sentences. Complete thoughts? Pffffft–I’ll be presenting this as a list.

Love It

Voice is a service–unlike my past phones voice on this one is just another part of the service mix.
Internet scaled for your hand–best mobile browsing experience I have ever had.
Email whenever, where ever–be it the mail application (which could use some feature love) or the sublimely designed Gmail for iPhones I can quickly retrieve and respond to messages
No keypad–I love the touch pad and how it learns alternate spellings and will offer them up as you type making the process fast and efficient.
Wi-Fi–Sure other phones have it but the stumble feature works great.

Hate It

Crippled bluetooth–Great, I can hook up a headset but no file transfers or even laptop tethering. That sucks, Apple.
iTunes–Yeah, I know. I bought a something from Captain Product Lockdown and I am bitching about having to use proprietary software but seriously, if Amazon can offer a DLM for their music store why the hell can’t Apple port iTunes to Linux? It is a real cramp in my ass to have my phone decoupled from the rest of my computing existence. As for jail breaking, it is not an option because I cannot afford the remote chance of bricking it as this is my primary tether to my job.
Rebooting–Like a Windows box, Management and I are finding we need to reboot our phones on a regular basis to keep the touch pad and Safari gremlins at bay. Methinks they need to take a look at memory leaks on the device.
No multimedia SMS–Seriously. WTF. Almost as stupid as breaking the legs off Bluetooth.

Bottom Line

The shine has worn off and my infatuation has mellowed into affectionate ambivalence. The iPhone has changed how I view cellphones and voice services in general. The device truly is a hand sized computer, allowing you to do many of the things you would on a laptop and it represents a paradigm shift: data is data is data. That said, it doesn’t blend well with a computing life off of either Apple or Windows. The inability to backup the device and sync content to it from my laptop handicaps the device enough that I will be seriously looking at what the Android based handsets will be offering this fall.

Sanctuary, A New Sci-Fi Series Online

Published by james on May 21, 2007 in Reviews. 0 Comments

This past Friday while perusing Digg I came upon a story about a web only Sci-Fi series named Sanctuary and the distribution model instantly piqued my interest. As far as media distribution and consumption goes the Internet is still a in its infancy and though we are beginning to see companies dip their to in the water like Apple and Joost the majority of material being released is still in a physical space and format.

Stage 3 has jumped into the fray with what is arguably a very expensive investment of television production quality on an iTunes sales model of $2 per episode or $7 for a pack of four. I’m going to guess that they would have to move 25k units per episode to break even so it is very possible that Stage 3 could see a modicum of success with this venture but the challenge will be to get noticed amongst all the other things clamoring for their audience’s attention. From what I can tell, they are essentially doing it on their own with carefully placed PR and word of mouth with only the backing of a pile of VC.

Enough about the business side, how is the inaugural episode? Well, I purchased a 4-pack sight unseen and have to admit that I really enjoyed it. The editing was tight and the story opened at a brisk pace with fairly crisp dialog that was at times Made for Sci-Fi Channel cheesy but it was overcome by the hook of a mysterious characters that appear to move through time (Victorian London to what appears to be present day NYC) and a lurking horror in the body of a little boy that has quite the hankering for brains. Initially, I was apprehensive of the potential production quality but the show makes ingenious and very creative use of green screen work and CG graphics, painting a decaying city shrouded in darkness and rain, which allows it to appear as if it has a bigger budget than it really does. Overall, they have introduced a story that blends a sort of horror meets science fiction that at once feels like it was a collaboration of Lovecraft and Verne but has been slightly reworked for today’s palate.

In the end, I certainly feel as if I got my money’s worth and am looking very forward to watching each episode as it is released, every two weeks according to their blog, and would recommend it anyone remotely interested in Sci-Fi or horror, especially since the price is right for what they have delivered so far. For more information, check out Sanctuary’s blog or peruse the freebies over at their fan site.

Old Timey Movie Round Up

Published by james on April 23, 2007 in Reviews. 2 Comments

The Killers
Simply awesome take on the hard boiled crime genre as it casts the insurance industry into a less dry light. Who knew members of the property and casualty coverage profession are as tough as nails with steel jaws and a hunger for justice whether by the bench or by the street. Seriously though, Edmond O’Brien and Burt Lancaster were fantastic as was Ava Gardner’s portrayal of a woman willing to double cross anyone just to rise above her past. Great film and highly recommended.

The Letter
Bette Davis’ character, Leslie Crosbie, was about as cold as a person could get. Sure, she said that she truly loved the man that she killed but I had a hard time believing her just for the fact that she came off as the DSM-IV definition of exhibiting sociopathic tendencies. Gripping look into how her husband and lawyer get sucked down the drain as she wriggles and worms her way to a not guilty conviction.

Brute Force
All this time I envisioned Hume Cronyn as the kindly old man from Cocoon and *batteries not included who was married to Jessica Tandy for some half a century. I was wrong. That man could beat the snot out of you with a piece of rubber tubing like nobody’s business. Anyway, great and depressing prison escape movie with Burt Lancaster doing anything he can to break out of Westgate as it falls into the hands of power mad Captain Munsey.

Seven Samurai
This was my first time watching the film and I fell in love immediately. Lushly shot, artfully paced, and beautifully acted I can understand why so many people refer to it as a masterpiece. As someone with little to no attention span for movies I was surprised that I was glued to the TV during the three and one half hours it took for the story to unfold and conclude. This is a film I would buy on DVD to have in my collection, it is just that good.

The Magnificent Seven
I wanted to really like this film, and I did on some levels, but there was one glaring issue for me and that was the character Chico. Drawing from Seven Samurai the writers made the character into a hybrid of Kikuchiyo and Katsushirō Okamoto which lent a very annoying schizophrenic feel to the film when he was on screen. He was either a clown or a hopeless, wet-behind-the-ears romantic and the film would have been better served following more closely to the source material and developing two characters for Chico.

Sleepless in Windsor, The Movie Roundup Edition

Published by james on April 6, 2007 in Reviews. 0 Comments

This week has been filled to the brim with fractured sleep schedules and near sleepless nights–last night, in particular was one long stretch of no more that 45 minutes of shut eye. Needless to say, since I cannot effectively work on the laptop at an awkward 90 degree angle with one arm, and I hesitate to open a book for fear that half-digested soy formula will spatter on the pages, movies are my friend and companion in the witching hour.

Ong-Bak (2003)
While light on plot and character development–the head of Buddha is stolen from a small village by big city thugs and the local nice/tough guy heads out to retrieve it–the movie excels in its stunts and fight choreography. The pace of the film is brisk and Tony Jaa demonstrates some incredible athletic and Muay Thai skills . If you like action and martial arts than this film is a must see. Add bonus, it spawned this conversation in the middle of the night:

Management: Why is the TV so loud?
Me: What?
Management: The TV, it’s L-O-U-D! (turns down the volume)
Me: Oh. I had trouble hearing the subtitles.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
There has been plenty said about this film and I have little to add except that I found it profoundly sad, moving, and enlightening all at once. See it.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Fantastic film. Beautifully shot; one of my favorite scenes is when the children are fleeing down the river the lighting and photography is lush and storybook like with shots peeking through the grass and over the back of a fat frog. The story is an old one of cruel step father after the hidden wealth of the young children yet Laughton and Agee took Grubb’s novel and blended together equal parts Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm while casting it in a dark Faulkner-esque Southern Gothic mold. Very highly recommended.

The Jacket (2005)
The synopsis on Dish did this movie no justice and I was left shaking my head as to why it only received two stars. It is a sad tale that folds Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind into Jacob’s Ladder and The Machinist. Adrien Brody plays an amnesiac Gulf War vet who is wrongfully accused of killing a Vermont state trooper and subsequently committed to a state run psychiatric hospital. Through the course of some incredibly cruel and inhumane “therapy” he finds he is able to step forward fifteen years in time allowing him to influence events in the present. Taut and well acted The Jacket is a must see.

Brazil (1985)
The last time I saw this film was some 20 years ago and my teenage self was amused by the Dadaist take on themes explored by Orwell, Kafka and Dostoevsky. This time around, in light of the last seven years, I felt profoundly sad and disheartened as Brazil is rapidly becoming a reality. Gilliam is at the top of his game, Pryce’s acting is top notch, and De Niro is inspired. See it and laugh through your tears.

Still on queue to watch is Brick along with a pile of movies from the Thirties, so long as my endurance holds up.

Middle of the Night Movie Round Up

Published by james on March 29, 2007 in Reviews. 8 Comments

While activities such as reading, writing, fiddling with the servers, and general upkeep of the house and yard have fallen off my list of things I regularly do (thankfully bathing and brushing my teeth are still on it) movie watching has spiked largely due to the fact that putting Gabi to bed involves an hour of two of cuddling before she actual will stay asleep. This week I’ve watched more movies than I have in the past year and even managed to stay awake through all of them. Some were fantastic, others visually tantalizing, and some execrable. Here’s the short list:

Into the Blue
This picture sums up the first hour of the film which can be mathematically represented as [(Jessica Alba + (Sun*Surf))^Bikini] = [Motivation to sit through an insipid plot]. I honestly think that this was the intention of the producers as that first hour was filled with one beautiful shot after another of Ms. Alba frolicking around the coastal waters of the Bahamas in the tiniest of outfits whilst demonstrating supernatural lung capacity. At the end of the hour, like some peepshow, the shade is drawn and she dons a wet suit and the viewer is faced with the cold hard reality of a limp plot, something about cocaine and lost pirate treasure. I don’t know but I do know that they could have just edited the last hour out and I would have been more than happy with the film.
Domino
Management recorded this one for me, likely not because of Kiera Knightly offering lap dances in her unmentionables to a collection of portly stereotypical Socal thugs, but because it was supposed to be an action packed flick involving guns and explosions. Here’s a tip: if the movie features Mickey Rourke you should turn around and walk quickly in the opposite direction. The movie could be nothing more than Ms. Knightly grinding in her panties but the moment they allow Rourke to emote the entire film collapses. He just has that power, it’s his gift.
Howl’s Moving Castle
Now this one was more family friendly–especially if you are questioning my viewing choices as a parent at this point. It has a great storyline that blends together several fairy tales (Snow White, Cinderella, The Frog and the Prince), giving them a fresh coat of paint and updating them to make the female lead more independent and self-sufficient. The Steam Punk world that characters inhabit is fantastic and I often found myself ignoring the dialog to just marvel at the visuals and the leaps of imagination that were committed to celluloid. See it.
Papillon
Steve McQueen. Dustin Hoffman. Solid acting. Solid plot. All those add up to make a film that is on the top of my list of favorites. I hadn’t seen Papillon since high school and was happy to see it show up on AMC last week as its long running time and high strung drama makes for perfect late night viewing (the added bonus is the condition of their teeth serves to make me feel better about mine–Capt. Cavity here). The movie is an adaptation of what has been argued to be a largely fictionalized autobiography of Henri Charrière but disregarding all that this is one of the best damn prison break films ever made. See it. Now.

Still left on the DVR is some 80 hours of movies including Brick which I am very eager to see as well as The Night of the Hunter–Robert Mitchum gives me the willies.

Any other recommendations? (and if it involves Jessica Alba in a bikini I’ll see it quicker!)

Democracy Player vs. PenguinTV

Published by james on July 7, 2006 in Reviews. 2 Comments

Democracy Player is what ushered me into the weird and interesting world of vlogs and if it were not for their channel guide I might not have discovered gems like Terra Video with their insightful nature shows or Telemusicvision which is a much better way to enjoy music videos than VH1 and all the MTVs combined. However, Democracy is designed with the notion that form should precede function so as a result it can be a stiff and awkward experience at best so after a few months of use I began to wish I could find a feed reader that was more like a media-centric version of Liferea*. PenguinTV appears to meet that need as it is designed with function first but offers enough polish to make media browsing and viewing an enjoyable experience.

Show here is Democracy Player’s channel guide which most users of cable or satellite TV would be quickly comfortable with searching and finding new shows to watch. Beyond that the interface is clean and easy to understand.

PenguinTV is more a feed reader than Democracy Player as it will parse feeds for all the content including information in the post about the content making it more of a comprehensive experience. Additionally, the upper right-hand corner always shows how much media has been downloaded helping the user better manage disk space.

Both Democracy Player and PenguinTV are very capable programs but it would be worthwhile to run down the pros and cons of each.

Democracy Pros

Channel Guide makes for easy discovery of new shows.
Integrated player allows for a seamless experience.
Auto-expire content to conserve disk space.

PenguinTV Pros

Fast
Renders full feed contents making it a true RSS reader.
Can limit the total amount of disk space used.
Small memory footprint.
Back up feed list as an OPML file.

Democracy Cons

Slow loading and navigating between feeds.
Buggy, occasional crashes when starting or exiting videos mars the experience.
No way to back up feed list.
Cannot render mixed media feeds, only ones with just video, which limits its utility.

PenguinTV Cons

No integrated way to discover new feeds.
~~No self-discovery of feed from base URL~~. (Fixed in 1.92!)
~~Shelling out to external video player can be slow though that is more an issue of the players load time.~~ (Really a non-issue, especially since it creates playlists for content queuing)

In the end, the flexibility and stability of PenguinTV wins out for me. The ability to back up the feed list as well as import is a huge win along with its ability to render the full contents of the feed rather than just the media aspects of it are huge pluses that cannot be ignored. Now, I will certainly keep Democracy Player around for its channel guide and to see where the team heads with the product.

* Note: Liferea does handle media-centric blogs well but it is designed with reading in mind rather than managing the consumption of media files, that and my enormous feed list is too unwieldy to add media content to it.

** Update: After using PenguinTV for the last two weeks it is hands down the app of choice and with self-discovery of feeds fixed in 1.92 things are even better. Also, my concern about shelling out to a video player is really a moot point as Penguin creates playlists so you can stack up all your unwatched content for easy viewing.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. —Voltaire